A model of management teams

We present a simple model of management teams where the time it takes to make decisions is related to the size of the committee. We characterize the situations where larger or smaller sizes of the management team are desirable depending on the covariance structure of the signals that the managers observe. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

O/S: The relative trading activity in options and stock

Relatively little is known about the trading volume in derivatives relative to the volume in underlying stocks. We study the time-series properties and the determinants of the options/stock trading volume ratio (O/S) using a comprehensive cross-section and time-series of data on equities and their listed options. O/S is related to many intuitive determinants such as delta and trading costs, and it also varies with institutional holdings, analyst following, and analyst forecast dispersion. O/S is higher around earnings announcements, suggesting increased trading in the options market. Further, post-announcement absolute returns are positively related to pre-announcement O/S, which suggests that at least part of the pre-announcement options trading is informed.     

Rural tourism and the development of less favoured areas—between rhetoric and practice

Tourism has, in recent times, been advocated as a particularly efficient way to promote the development of the so‐called less favoured regions, mostly inland and mountain, owing to its potential for employment and income creation and the synergies it is able to generate in other sectors of activity. Based on the results of empirical research carried out in two distinct inland zones of Portugal, this article tries to demonstrate that a wide gap and considerable contradictions are emerging between the rhetoric and the real benefits that tourism has been producing in the local societies and economies of these regions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“To love beer above all things”: An analysis of Brazilian craft beer subculture of consumption

In this article, we describe and analyze the Brazilian craft beer subculture of consumption. We observed that feelings play an important role inside this subculture and used a sociocultural approach to analyze it. Field notes from 9 months of fieldwork at beer festivals, craft beer meetings, and Collective Brassages and 40 interviews with consumers are used as data. “Drink less, drink better” is the subculture’s motto and shows commitment to enjoyment and responsibility as craft beer consumers reject mass-produced beer and antisocial behaviors usually associated with beer drinkers. We differentiated members of the craft beer subculture of consumption according to their commitment to subculture ethos, beer-specific knowledge, experience drinking and making beer, and emotional attachment to craft beer. Craft beer consumers experience different sentiments as their status inside the subculture increases and hard-core members show a religious fervor for the beer that is similar to consumer devotion.     

Operational efficiency vs clinical safety,care appropriateness,timeliness, and access to health care

Journal of Productivity Analysis - Health care systems face resource scarcity that may jeopardise their financial sustainability as well as the quality of delivered health care. In view of that,...     

A two‐sector neo‐Kaleckian model of growth and distribution: Investment allocation and evolutionary dynamics

This paper focuses on the two‐sector neo‐Kaleckian model of growth and distribution that was developed by Dutt (1990) and challenged by Park (1995). We develop a variant of this model, focusing on the supply‐side to solve the overdetermination problem that was raised by Park. Finally, we introduce evolutionary dynamics to model the investment flows between the capital and consumer goods sectors. In this setup, the sectoral profit rates and the size of capital stocks wield an essential role upon the entrepreneur’s decision on which sector to invest in. This model is perfectly determined and it generates a stable evolutionary equilibrium over the long term.     

The framework of ‘local productive and innovation systems’ and its influence on STI policy in Brazil

ABSTRACT

Throughout its twenty years of existence, a Brazilian research network, RedeSist, has developed and improved the theoretical and methodological framework of National Systems of Innovation. The first aim of this article is to present RedeSist’s focusing device of Local Innovation and Production Systems (LIPS), a combination of the Systems of Innovation framework with the contributions of the Latin American Structuralist Approach and to explain the main tools devised to capture collective and systemic processes of production and innovation, taking into account that every LIPS is inserted in specific, local, regional, national and global systems. The second objective is to discuss the Brazilian experience in designing and implementing LIPS policies as part of its industrial and innovation policies. The concluding remarks attempt at recuperating the most important arguments of the discussion and at highlighting the advantages of creating and using contextualized and systemic theories, concepts, indicators and policy models.     

Labor supply: Toward the construction of an alternative conception from post Keynesian and institutional economics

Post Keynesian and institutional economics have traditionally maintained a critical stance toward the orthodox model of labor supply, questioning many of its underlying assumptions. Nevertheless, this critical view has not led to the formulation of an alternative conception of labor supply that is sufficiently coherent and structured to be generally accepted within these branches of the literature. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the construction of such an alternative. To do so, the article starts by analyzing the relationship between the reasons that lead to individuals offering their labor and what that activity can bring to human beings in return. Secondly, the authors present an alternative concept of what workers contribute at work. They then analyze how the decision-making process regarding the labor supply actually takes place. Finally, the article concludes by briefly presenting certain additional points, in particular how differentiation is an inherent feature of the labor supply.     

An empirical test of the Post-Keynesian growth model applied to functional income distribution and the growth regime in Brazil

The main purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate whether, between 1970 and 2008, the Brazilian economy was profit-led or wage-led. To this end, we approach a canonical post-Keynesian growth model (PKGM) to estimate certain vector autoregressive (VAR) models and perform Granger non-causality tests. Three main results are extracted from the generalized impulse-response functions provided by the VAR models. First, a positive profit-share innovation affects economic growth and capacity utilization rate, both in the same direction, suggesting a profit-led pattern. Second, a profit share shock positively affects both the ratio actual/potential output, and capital accumulation, reinforcing the previous result. Third, a capacity utilization shock is shown to positively affect both output growth and capital accumulation via the accelerator effect. On the one hand, the pairwise Granger non-causality test does not provide any evidence of causality running from profit share to economic growth or capacity utilization. On the other hand, there is some evidence of Granger causality running from profit share to capital accumulation.